Spain’s economy, the 13th largest in the world, continues to improve. In 2014, 417,000 jobs were added and unemployment, although still high, continues to fall.
An interesting measure of this growth is the rate of job creation. Past figures have shown growth in employment to be measurable as the economy added 2% or above to GDP. During this recovery, added employment occurred at a GDP growth of 1.4%. Furthermore, the Spanish government is predicting the addition of 600,000 new jobs and a GDP growth of 2% in 2015.
Denia has seen year on year gains in the hotel and tourism industries for the last 3 years. 2013 saw an improvement of 2.5% over 2012.
A valuable indicator of the area’s hotel industry growth is appearing in each of the two shoulder seasons, Fall (Autumn) and Spring. Additionally, the low season has shown resilience averaging well into the 50 percentiles. Other elements within the area’s hospitality industry, private home vacation rentals and vacation apartments, have shown occupancies in the 20% range.
The proportion of Spanish visitors to Denia has grown from a low in 2008 to approximately 50% of the total from 2010-2013. Interestingly, this pattern is seen in much of the European Union, where it seems native populations, across all socio-economic sectors, are inclined to view vacationing within their respective home countries as being of greater value.
Of visitors from other countries, the French represent the largest segment of visitor’s to Denia through 2013 and into 2014.
In the first 11 months of 2014, Spain welcomed 61.7 million visitors, a new record, surpassing 60 million visitors in previous years. According to figures from the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, Spain pulled in record tourist spending of 56,374,000 euro from January-October 2014.
In Denia’s residential real estate market, French buyers are a dominant element, and there is strong demand throughout.
Additionally, the strong representation of highly ranked (Michelin and Repsol) restaurants continues to grow in and around Denia.
